Letter to the Editor: Republican Mess

January 26, 2018

What a bunch of losers Republicans are. They have majorities in both houses and have control of the executive branch, and, still, they cannot govern. Amazingly for once, there was a reasonable bipartisan proposal on DACA, worked out over months in collaborative efforts headed up by Democratic Senator Durbin and Republican Senator Graham. The proposal would have garnered the Democratic support needed to avoid a government shutdown had that proposal been attached to the funding bill. But an irrational and unpredictable Republican president sabotaged the funding bill when he inexplicably torpedoed the DACA proposal at his infamous excrement meeting, understandably forfeiting support from Democratic senators for the legislation. The Republican president has precipitated a deplorable state of affairs. His dangerous unpredictability and his constant lying provide Democratic lawmakers no reason to reach across the aisle on any kind of legislation because, frankly, neither Democratic nor Republican lawmakers can trust Trump to support any bills that are fashioned in a bipartisan manner. Congress now finds itself mired in a legislative bog created by Republicans. They made it; they own it. And it is Republicans who now bear the full responsibility of trying to extricate Congress from the stinking mess in which it finds itself. Given Republicans' track record to govern so far, I'm expecting to be holding my nose for a long time.